Jon Bois

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This article is about the American sportswriter. For the English scholar, see John Bois.

Jon Bois
Born (1982-09-24) September 24, 1982 (age 41)
Kansas City, Kansas
NationalityAmerican
OccupationWriter
EmployerSB Nation
Notable work17776
The History of the Seattle Mariners
The Bob Emergency
Websitesbnation.com/authors/jon-bois

Jon Bois (/bɔɪs/ BOYSS;[1] born September 24, 1982) is an American sports writer, video producer, and YouTuber. He is the creative director at SB Nation, a sports blogging network.[2] Bois is known for his speculative fiction works on sports, such as 17776, its follow-up 20020, and The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles. He is also known for his documentary videos and their unique style. Bois's work often covers strange incidents, statistical outliers, and teams considered unsuccessful or unpopular.[3] He is the inventor of the concept of scorigami.

Early life and education[edit]

Bois was born on September 24, 1982, in Kansas City, Kansas[4] and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky until moving to Atlanta, Georgia aged nine.[5] From the fifth grade until high school, Bois was homeschooled; he later wrote about his experience with homeschooling for Vice.[6] He dropped out of college after one semester.[6] Bois worked at RadioShack sometime in the early to mid 2000s, later publishing multiple articles detailing his personal experiences as an employee.[7][8][9]

Career[edit]

Bois started blogging in 2003 on the website ProgressiveBoink.com, which he co-founded along with a group of other writers,[10] and first rose to online prominence co-writing the baseball-themed webcomic The Dugout with Brandon Stroud and Nick Dallamora.[11] He started as an editor at SB Nation in 2009.[12] From 2013 to 2015, Bois published "Breaking Madden," a series of articles in which he created unusual football scenarios in the Madden NFL video games.[13] In August 2014, he published "The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles," a sports story based on the fictional premise that NFL quarterback Tim Tebow had joined the Canadian Football League.[14][15]

In May 2015, Bois published the first episode of a documentary video series called "Pretty Good." The series told true stories of unusual events, often related to sports, such as the career path of baseball player Lonnie Smith, professional poker, and the infamous 1904 Olympic marathon, but also including a variety of other topics such as the Lawnchair Larry flight and the TV series 24. As of March 2021, the series has thirteen episodes, the last of which, about Randall Cunningham and the 1987 NFL Players Strike, was published in September 2017.[16]

In 2016, Bois began another documentary video series called "Chart Party," in which he used statistical analysis to explore and understand sports stories. Of particular note, Bois published an episode in December 2016 called "Every NFL Score Ever," in which he discussed how football's scoring system makes some final game scores very unlikely, and coined the term "scorigami" to describe the act of achieving a never-before-seen final result.[17] The video led one viewer to create a website to track new scorigami instances, and the term has seen usage in other sports publications.[18][19][20] The series has also discussed topics such as the saddest punt in the world, how Barry Bonds’ 2004 season would have looked like if he had played without a bat, the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, and the career of Jeff Francoeur, who Bois describes as his “favorite worst baseball player”.[21]

In July 2017, Bois published a serialized multimedia narrative called 17776, a work of speculative fiction describing unusual forms of American football played in the distant future.[15] According to Bois, the story garnered four million pageviews from 700,000 unique visitors in two weeks.[22] The series won a National Magazine Award for Digital Innovation from the American Society of Magazine Editors.[23] Bois began a sequel to 17776, entitled 20020, in September 2020. A sequel to 20020, called 20021, was planned to be released in Spring 2021, but has been delayed.[24][25][26]

A chapter of Upon Further Review, a collection of sports what-if scenarios compiled by editor Mike Pesca published in 2018, was written by Bois, with his scenario being "What If Basketball Rims Were Smaller Than Basketballs?"[27]

In April 2018, Bois and fellow SB Nation personality Alex Rubenstein began the series "Dorktown", which followed a similar format and style as his prior series "Pretty Good", showcasing unusual events, statistics, and personalities from sports history. In 2020, Bois and Rubenstein released a 6-part special mini-series of Dorktown chronicling the history of the Seattle Mariners baseball franchise.[28] A "Supercut Edition" of the film, running 220 minutes in length, was released on YouTube on September 24, 2020. The film would go on to win the Best Documentary Feature award from the Seattle Film Critics Society in February 2021, with its first episode, "This is not an endorsement of arson," being listed by The New York Times as one of the best episodes of TV of 2020.[29][30] He and Rubenstein released a similar documentary on the Atlanta Falcons American football franchise throughout August and September 2021.[31][32] Between March and April 2022, he and Rubenstein released "Captain Ahab", a 4-part documentary on former MLB pitcher Dave Stieb.[33] On June 26, 2022, he and Rubenstein released a documentary about the 1976 NFL Playoffs game between the Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers, and the plane crash that happened after the game.[34] Later that year, Dorktown released "The People You're Paying to Be in Shorts", a 147-minute documentary about the 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats, the team with the worst record in NBA history, and the team's owner, six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan.[3] In August and September 2023, Bois and Rubenstein released a 7-part documentary on the history of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings,[35][36] similar to the prior series on the Mariners and Falcons. At over nine hours, it is Bois' longest work.

In 2018, Bois collaborated with Felix Biederman of Chapo Trap House on the five-part documentary "Fighting In the Age of Loneliness", presented in style influenced by British documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis, which focuses on the development of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) from the early development of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Vale Tudo in the development of more complex fighting styles.[37] It focuses on the development of MMA as a mainstream sport, including Pride Fighting Championship and the development of Ultimate Fighting Championships, and their parallels to the 21st century neoliberal socio-political landscape of financial collapse and inequality. On December 29, 2020, a supercut edition of Fighting in the Age of Loneliness was released to YouTube to commemorate the Secret Base channel accumulating 1 million subscribers.[38]

In 2019, Bois released a two-part series on professional athletes named Bob.[39][40] Its title, "The Bob Emergency," refers to the dwindling numbers of such athletes, with Bois only tallying 10 active athletes named Bob at the series' end on May 21, 2019. Bois has previously written on this topic, referring to it as "The Bob Famine" in a 2012 article about Bob Sanders, believed to be the last Bob in major American sports.[41]

On September 17, 2019, Bois and SB Nation video producer Kofie Yeboah started a video series called "Fumble Dimension".[42] Similar to Bois's earlier "Breaking Madden", it consists of using in-game mechanics of sports video games to create unusual scenarios, usually with fan input.[43][44]

Style[edit]

Bois has a very distinctive audiovisual style, heavily utilizing Google Earth as a medium in which to place various visuals, making heavy use of newspaper articles, charts, and timelines to create a collage that builds over the runtime of a video.[3]

His videos often make use of smooth jazz, from artists like Keith Mansfield and Alan Hawkshaw, as background music.[45] Elaborating on his musical leanings, Bois says, "I have a love in particular for smooth, hyper-produced saxophone, from older stuff like Steely Dan and "The Captain of Her Heart" by Double, to newer stuff like Destroyer's "Kaputt," which I think is probably my favorite song."[46]

Bois's work often centers various sports statistics directly. He has been praised for making them accessible to a general audience in a way that makes them interesting and gripping, rather than background material. Bois has said that he is "making sports documentaries for people who don't watch sports."[3]

Bois's work has been noted to cover less successful teams.[47] Speaking to the "History of..." Dorktown series, Bois has said, "With the Mariners, the Falcons, and the Vikings, the obvious through line between the three is that none of them have ever won a chip, right? To an extent, that is part of the allure to us. We think the stories of teams that haven’t won it all are sometimes underappreciated or underreported."[48]

Personal life[edit]

Bois is a Kansas City Chiefs fan.[49] He got married in June 2021.[50]

Bibliography[edit]

  • 2014: The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles
  • 2017: 17776
  • 2018: "What If Basketball Rims Were Smaller Than Basketballs?" (part of Upon Further Review)
  • 2018: "The Stallion" (part of SB Nation's Forest of Fright)
  • 2020: 20020

Filmography[edit]

Documentaries[edit]

Table featuring documentaries created by Jon Bois
Year Title Director Producer Writer Narrator Notes
2018 Fighting in the Age of Loneliness Yes Yes No No Written and narrated by Felix Biederman.[51]
2019 The Bob Emergency Yes Yes Yes Yes Released in two parts.[52]
2020 The History of the Seattle Mariners Yes Yes Yes Yes Produced, written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein.[53]
2021 The History of the Atlanta Falcons Yes No Yes Yes Released in seven parts. Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein. Produced by Rubenstein.
2022 Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb Yes No Yes Yes Released in four parts. Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein. Produced by Rubenstein.[33]
Section 1 Yes No Yes Yes Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein. Produced by Rubenstein.
The People You're Paying to Be in Shorts Yes No Yes Yes Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein, Seth Rosenthal and Kofie Yeboah. Produced by Rubenstein.
2023 The History of the Minnesota Vikings Yes No Yes Yes Released in seven parts. Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein. Produced by Rubenstein.

Video series[edit]

Table featuring documentaries created by Jon Bois
Year Title Notes
2015–2017 Pretty Good 13 episodes[54]
2015–2019 Chart Party 16 episodes[55]
2018–present Dorktown 31 episodes[56]
2019–present Fumble Dimension 15 episodes[57]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "We destroyed the NBA's future with a video game | Fumble Dimension Episode 1". SB Nation. September 18, 2019. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  2. ^ "Masthead". SB Nation. April 28, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d Marsh, Calum (December 30, 2022). "Turning Sports Statistics Into Riveting Cinema". The New York Times. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
  4. ^ "https://twitter.com/jon_bois/status/1700006773384458599?s=20". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved September 8, 2023. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  5. ^ Bois, Jon (September 25, 2012). "What It Feels Like To Be 30". SB Nation. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Bois, Jon (May 1, 2013). "Go to Homeschool". Vice. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  7. ^ Bois, Jon (November 26, 2014). "A eulogy for RadioShack, the panicked and half-dead retail empire". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  8. ^ Bois, Jon (November 5, 2020). "The ballpoint pen". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  9. ^ Bois, Jon (February 19, 2015). "The end of RadioShack, through the eyes of a store manager". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  10. ^ Bois, Jon (September 9, 2013). "Happy 10th birthday, Progressive Boink". Progressive Boink. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
  11. ^ "The Dugout • Archives". Archived from the original on May 4, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
  12. ^ Colon, David (August 3, 2015). "How'd you get that cool job: Jon Bois editor at SB Nation". Brokelyn. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
  13. ^ Bois, Jon. "Breaking Madden". SB Nation. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  14. ^ Bois, Jon (August 18, 2014). "The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles". SB Nation. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  15. ^ a b Crouch, Ian (July 12, 2017). "The Experimental Fiction That Imagines Football-Obsessed Americans in the Extremely Distant Future". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  16. ^ Bois, Jon. "Pretty Good". SB Nation. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  17. ^ Mattingly, Dave. "NFL Scorigami". NFL Scorigami. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  18. ^ Musgrove, Kole (December 3, 2018). "Seahawks continue bizarre 'Scorigami' streak under Pete Carroll". Seahawks Wire. USA Today. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  19. ^ Roeder, Oliver (September 17, 2018). "Significant Digits For Monday, Sept. 17, 2018". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  20. ^ "Scorigami origins and how it works in the NFL". NBC Sports Philadelphia. January 11, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  21. ^ Bois, Jon (September 7, 2016). "Jeff Francoeur, my favorite worst baseball player". SBNation.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  22. ^ Bois, Jon [@jon_bois] (July 19, 2017). "over the last two weeks, 17776 got four million pageviews and 700,000 unique visitors. people stuck around for an average of 11 minutes" (Tweet). Retrieved July 25, 2017 – via Twitter.
  23. ^ @ASME1963 (March 13, 2018). "Ellies 2018: @SBNation wins Digital Innovation category for '17776: An American Football Story'" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  24. ^ "20020". Secret Base. SB Nation. Retrieved October 2, 2020.[permanent dead link]
  25. ^ MacAree, Graham; Bois, Jon (September 28, 2020). "20020 Open Thread". Secret Base. SB Nation. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  26. ^ Bois, Jon [@jon_bois] (October 14, 2020). "PROBLEM: the giant football game in 20020 is way too large, there are 111 teams and 134,000 miles of field, we'll never be able to talk about this entire thing in just 12 parts SOLUTION: https://t.co/5WF7wlVPnA" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  27. ^ Roberts, Stephen V. (June 29, 2018). "What if Nixon had excelled in college football? What if Ali hadn't been banished?". The Washington Post.
  28. ^ Bois, Jon (March 25, 2020). "Why we're making a 3-hour documentary series on the Seattle Mariners". SBNation.com. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  29. ^ ""Nomadland" Named Best Picture of 2020 by Seattle Film Critics Society". Seattle Film Critics Society. February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  30. ^ Poniewozik, James; Hale, Mike; Lyons, Margaret (December 17, 2020). "The Best TV Episodes of 2020". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  31. ^ Bois, Jon [@jon_bois] (August 11, 2021). "me and alex are so stoked. after working on this all year, we're finally gonna drop the first episode one week from today. @JoeAli shows up in almost every episode too, including this one" (Tweet). Retrieved August 15, 2021 – via Twitter.
  32. ^ Greene, Steve (September 23, 2021). "Secret Base Has Reinvented the Sports Docuseries for the Internet Age". IndieWire. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  33. ^ a b "Meet Dave Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb, Part 1". YouTube. Secret Base. March 1, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  34. ^ Section 1: A short film from Dorktown, retrieved July 1, 2022
  35. ^ "Secret Base - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  36. ^ Shachat, Sarah (September 14, 2023). "'The History of the Minnesota Vikings' Pushes Documentaries — and Google Earth — to New Storytelling Heights". IndieWire. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  37. ^ Bois, Jon (December 29, 2020). "MMA and American empire: a conversation with Felix Biederman and Jon Bois". SBNation.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  38. ^ "Fighting in the Age of Loneliness: Supercut edition". YouTube. Secret Base. December 29, 2020. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  39. ^ Bois, Jon (April 29, 2019). "The Bob Emergency: a study of athletes named Bob, Part I". Retrieved April 26, 2020 – via YouTube.
  40. ^ Bois, Jon (May 21, 2019). "The Bob Emergency: a study of athletes named Bob, Part II". Retrieved April 26, 2020 – via YouTube.
  41. ^ Bois, Jon (January 18, 2012). "The Bob Famine: Athletes Aren't Named 'Bob' Anymore And There's Nothing We Can Do About It". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  42. ^ Yeboah, Kofie (September 25, 2020). "Fumble Dimension #1: One year later". SBNation.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  43. ^ "We destroyed the NBA's future with a video game | Fumble Dimension Episode 1". Retrieved October 26, 2020 – via YouTube.
  44. ^ Hickey, Walter. "Numlock Sunday: Kofie Yeboah on The Fumble Dimension". www.numlock.com. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  45. ^ Smith, Dan E. (April 7, 2022). "The Significance of the Insignificant: The Works of Jon Bois and the Objective Spectacle of Global…". Medium. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  46. ^ Swen, Ryan (March 1, 2023). ""We Aren't Simply Trying to Appeal to Nostalgia": Jon Bois on the Art of Sports Docs". Filmmaker Magazine | Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  47. ^ ""The History of the Minnesota Vikings": Jon Bois, Secret Base tackle team's glorious, groanworthy saga - CBS Minnesota". www.cbsnews.com. July 31, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  48. ^ "Jon Bois Keeps Finding Beauty in Miserable Sports Teams". GQ. August 1, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  49. ^ Bois, Jon (October 6, 2015). "CHART PARTY: THE CHIEFS KICKED SEVEN FIELD GOALS AND LOST". Retrieved February 16, 2020 – via YouTube.
  50. ^ Bois, Jon [@jon_bois] (June 21, 2021). "got married https://t.co/weTMzUjLLk" (Tweet). Retrieved May 29, 2022 – via Twitter.
  51. ^ Bois, Jon; Biederman, Felix (November 26, 2018). "Fighting in the Age of Loneliness". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  52. ^ Bois, Jon (April 30, 2019). "The Bob Emergency, Part I". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  53. ^ Bois, Jon; Rubenstein, Alex (August 31, 2020). "The History of the Seattle Mariners: Supercut Edition". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  54. ^ Bois, Jon. "Pretty Good". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  55. ^ Bois, Jon (October 6, 2015). "Chart Party: The Chiefs kicked 7 field goals and lost". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  56. ^ Bois, Jon. "Dorktown". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  57. ^ Bois, Jon; Yeboah, Kofie (September 26, 2019). "Fumble Dimension, episode 1: director's commentary". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.

External links[edit]

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